Johnson guiding wheelchair hoops squad to Paralympics

By JIM BENDER, QMI Agency

National women’s wheelchair basketball head coach Bill Johnson (third left) shares a laugh with wheelchair hoops players at the University of Manitoba Tuesday, including his brother Joey (far left), a member of the national men’s wheelchair team. (CHRIS PROCAYLO/QMI Agency)

WINNIPEG - When they were young lads growing up in Lorette, the Johnson boys enjoyed playing every sport possible together.

Then, Bill Johnson’s little brother, Joey, became disabled when he was only eight.

“It was pretty hard for Joey at first because he was such a good hockey player and he couldn’t play hockey any more,” recalled Johnson, who was nine at the time. “But it wasn’t long before he discovered wheelchair sports and I got in a chair and started playing with him again — they encourage able-bodied people to play so they can have enough teams.”

Joey went on to become a star for the national men’s wheelchair basketball team and plays professionally overseas. When Bill got in that chair, it opened a new world to him and he eventually became the head coach of the national women’s basketball team.

“(Winnipeg’s) Michelle Stilwell asked me if I would help start a women’s team in Winnipeg,” said Johnson, whose squad is training for the 2012 Paralympics in London at the University of Manitoba this week. “I told her that I didn’t want to coach but I’d help out.

“But I enjoy coaching now. I guess I just came along at the right time.”

Johnson, 38, has been coaching since 1997 and has been with the national women’s team since 2003 and its head coach for the last three years. Before that, he was an assistant coach with both the national men’s and the Canadian junior wheelchair basketball squads. Johnson, who also mentored Manitoba teams, was named Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association Coach of the year in 2007.

“I worked in sport administration for a few years and never really considered that coaching would be my career,” said Johnson, whose wife, Wanda, and two kids reside in Winnipeg.

“But I get to do something I love to do with people I enjoy. I can’t believe I get paid to coach basketball.”

But it’s not all fun and games.

“There’s always health issues that can come up,” Johnson said.

“In 2006 at the world championship, we had the best player in the world, Danielle Peers. We won the gold medal and she was named MVP. We had built a strong relationship with each other. But she had to retire because she has muscular dystrophy and could not play any more.”

Peers is now teaching a university course on sports and disability in Calgary and will be helping the team out sometime this summer.

The national women’s team last won gold at the 2000 Paralympics in Australia, but won the bronze in 2004, and gold at the 2002 and ’06 world championships. It is now ranked No. 3 in the world. To properly prepare for London, Wheelchair Basketball Canada decided to centralize the team in Winnipeg.

“It makes sense because we’ve got athletes coming from all over Canada,” Johnson said. “We’ve never actually centralized before, so we’re falling in line with able-bodied sports. It gives you a chance to work with the whole team before you go to tournaments.”

Ironically, there is not a single athlete from Winnipeg on the 14-women team as Stilwell left basketball to concentrate on track.

The team was also unable to practise at the Investors Group Athletic Centre this week because the university is re-doing the floors there. That means they are training in a gym that only has one wheelchair-accessible washroom for 14 athletes nearby, Johnson lamented.